A blog for Small Business Consultants and the vendors who serve them. It contains Opinions on business success, News in the SMB consulting space, and Information on what I'm up to.All material Copyright (c) 2006-2020 by Karl W. Palachuk unless otherwise noted.

Monday, December 03, 2007

Cox on Marketing

One of my favorite "philosophers" of business is Coleman Cox. If you look at almost any collection of quotes, you'll find quotes by Coleman Cox, generally about sales and business.

Most people like to quote his one-and two-line quips. Here's a great longer quote from Just Plain Talk:

When a man is "all run down" and needs building up he calls in a doctor for advice, and medicine that will put him right. He does not dispute the doctor's diagnosis of his case, or rewrite the prescription to suit himself. How different it is when his buisness is "run down" and needs building up. He calls in an advertising man whose business is to stimulate, and build up a run down business. He rewrites the advertising man's "prescriptions" as fast as they are handed to him, changes the size of doses and time of giving to suit himself, and then puts all the blame on the advertising man if the business does not show immediate improvement. Yes, the advertising business is the only business in the world every man "knows"--or thinks he knows.

Isn't it true? You can buy books by Erick Simpson and Matt Makowicz, or a program from Robin Robins. But what do you do?

You start by putting on your "Let's do it my way" filter.

You are seeking advice because your way needs improvement. So why are you stripping out bits and pieces of their advice so that the action plan looks more like what you've already been doing?

Reason One: You're most comfortable with what you've done in the past. True. But that got you here and you want to move on. Doing more of the same is going to get you more of the same.

Reason Three: It costs too much money. Finding the right list costs money. Doing a mailing of 3-4 pages and repeating it 3-4 times costs money. It can costs a couple thousand dollars. What if you don't get any response?

Reality check: In order to save money and play it safe, you are very tempted to go cheap on the list, do a 1-2 page letter, and only repeat it once. What have you done? You've mailed to the wrong people with a watered down message, and you haven't reinforced it.

But at least you get to blame your advisors! After all, "their" program didn't work.

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FTC Disclosure Statement

I make every attempt to honestly state what I believe and enjoy the freedom of posting whatever I feel like on this blog. This is a big complicated world and I have many interconnected personal and professional relationships.

I may in some way receive money or other benefits from any of the products, services, or companies mentioned in this blog as a direct or indirect result of my actions on and off this blog. Any experience mentioned here is just my experience and I have no knowledge about whether it represents a typical experience with any products, services, or companies mentioned.

Whenever it is possible to have both an honest and a misleading interpretation of my statements, please assume honesty. Thanks. - karlp